Pat Dollard | Young Americans

This just in as he expects us to believe his Interior Ministry’s report about Blackwater:

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A damning report by the US embassy detailing corruption in the Iraqi government was made public on Friday, days ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and US President George W. Bush.

The draft report paints a grim picture of graft in all government departments, many of which, it says, are controlled by criminal gangs and militia.

Maliki’s office, it says, has shown an “open hostility” to allowing independent investigators to probe corruption cases.

Government corruption is expected to be on the agenda when Maliki and Bush, who has frequently urged the Iraqi government to do more to effect political reconciliation and rein in graft, meet in New York next week at the United Nations General Assembly.

Also likely to be discussed is a furious row over the deployment of American private security company Blackwater to protect US embassy staff in Iraq, following its involvement in a shooting incident in Baghdad last Sunday in which 10 people were killed.

Maliki has demanded that the US replace the firm, while Bush on Thursday expressed his sorrow at the loss of life.

The 82-page corruption report is marked “Sensitive but not classified” and labelled a “working draft.”

The US embassy, contacted by AFP, did not deny the existence of the report but said it would comment later.

National Public Radio in Washington quoted a US official as saying the report is still in draft form and that there are questions about the reliability of some of the sources.

The Commission of Public Integrity (CPI), which is tasked with rooting out corruption from state institutions, is “a passive rather than a true investigative agency,” the report says.

“Though legally empowered to conduct investigations, the combined security situation and the violent character of the criminal elements within the ministries make investigation of corruption too hazardous for all but a tactically robust police force with the support of the Iraqi government.

“Currently this support is lacking,” it says, adding that this has allowed the “corruption to be the norm in many ministries.”

“(CPI investigators) cannot be trusted to truthfully reveal criminal activity against anyone protected by the violent or powerful,” the report says.

“The court system in Iraq remains weak, intimidated, subject to political pressure, and clogged with minor cases.”

The interior ministry is seen by Iraqis as untouchable while corruption investigations in the defence ministry are judged to be ineffectual, it says.

“Several ministries are so controlled by criminal gangs or militias as to be impossible to operate (in the absence of) a tactical force protecting the investigator.”

The Iraqi government has not immediately commented on the draft report.